Population

Human Rights Defenders, 2011 - 2015

Human rights defenders promote and protect human rights through peaceful means individually or/and with others. They may collect and disseminate information on violations, support victims of abuse, or seek accountability and an end to impunity. Human rights funding for human rights defenders supports their protection needs, enhancing their resilience and developing a more enabling environment for their work. It includes rapid response and longer-term capacity-building support.

Foundation Funding for Human Rights Defenders

These are partial figures based on a subset of foundations that shared grants data all five years: Read more about our methodology.

1%
Share of foundation
human rights funding

$59.0 Million out of
$9.4 Billion for all rights
1,868 Grants
from 2011 - 2015

Top Foundation Funders

  1. Freedom House $10.7 M
  2. The Oak Foundation $8.0 M
  3. Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders $7.2 M
  4. American Jewish World Service $5.5 M
  5. National Endowment for Democracy $5.3 M
  6. Hivos $2.7 M
  7. The Sigrid Rausing Trust $2.3 M
  8. Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights $2.1 M
  9. Fund For Global Human Rights $1.8 M
  10. Ford Foundation $1.8 M
  11. Mama Cash $1.7 M
  12. Foundation for a Just Society $1.7 M
  13. Urgent Action Fund - Africa $1.6 M
  14. Fondo de Accion Urgente de America Latina $1.0 M
  15. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $1.0 M
  16. Charles Stewart Mott Foundation $550.0 K
  17. New Israel Fund $507.5 K
  18. Norwegian Human Rights Fund $450.7 K
  19. The Overbrook Foundation $440.0 K
  20. Cordaid $312.1 K
  21. Arcus Foundation $306.3 K
  22. Mensen met een Missie $228.0 K
  23. Freedom Fund (UK) $198.0 K
  24. Brazil Human Rights Fund $194.7 K
  25. Channel Foundation $183.0 K
  26. M = Millions
    B = Billions

Bilateral and Multilateral Funding

1%
Share of OECD
human rights funding

$483.7 Million out of
$36.6 Billion for all rights
2,142 Disbursements

Top Funders

  1. Sweden $146.4 M
  2. European Union Institutions $110.9 M
  3. Norway $60.6 M
  4. United States $51.2 M
  5. Canada $20.3 M
  6. Finland $17.6 M
  7. United Kingdom $16.3 M
  8. Netherlands $14.6 M
  9. Germany $11.8 M
  10. Switzerland $11.6 M
  11. Spain $7.0 M
  12. Ireland $6.1 M
  13. Belgium $3.3 M
  14. Denmark $2.2 M
  15. Austria $1.2 M
  16. Iceland $844.8 K
  17. Central Emergency Response Fund $600.0 K
  18. Czech Republic $517.8 K
  19. Estonia $348.4 K
  20. Korea $109.6 K
  21. Italy $78.8 K
  22. M = Millions
    B = Billions

Subset of Foundation Funding by Region

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Issue

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Intersecting Populations

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Strategy

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Grants in this category include those that explicitly reference human rights defenders in the grant description, as well as grants from funders that identified all of their funding as supporting this population.